High Volume Requires A System

What my work in high volume debt collections taught me

Step One is Acceptance

I worked in high volume collections for about 10+ years.

If you are working in any sort of job where there is a volume of files, assignments, jobs, or even here at ILLUMINATION, you must accept that once volume gets to a certain level, you won’t be able to handle everything. Division of work is necessary.

The same is true here in reading on Medium. We have a huge abundance of stories. I accept I won’t be able to read everything that comes my way. There isn’t enough time.

Step Two is Teamwork

When I did debt collection, the offices where I worked had many more staff people to attorneys to assist with the work. There was no way that I could do everything, travel to court, and keep up with changes in the law. I needed to have a daily routine and also delegation skills.

I was responsible for everything in my areas — more on that below — so I had a system to review everything before it went out, even if I didn’t do all of the labor intensive things that take up a lot of time. If I had to do it on my own, I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish much in a high volume environment.

That’s why it’s smart to have a large number of qualified editors on staff. That way stories don’t get stuck in the queue. Volume can remain high and readers will always have an assortment of great content to read.

Step Three is a System

Notes — Your institutional memory

Having a system to manage volume is important. I took notes on everything I did and entered them into a computer system so others could see what I had done and also work on the file for whatever they might need to do. They didn’t have to ask me to get them up to speed because of the notes. A collector could pull the file and talk to a debtor. A client liaison in the office could give a client update if I was away from the office. A boss could double check things. A client auditor could look for areas of improvement sometime in the future.

SOPs

M y bosses also taught me the importance of having a Standard Operating Procedure. It made it easy to keep up with everything since in law, different courts might have different rules within the frame work of the state law. Some courts might require certain paper weights — 20 LBS cotton rag was a favorite of one judge, so there better be a watermark showing that on the paper. Now, things are more standardized because of electronic filing, but individual places have different needs and requirements. I always kept my notes in a binder so that someone else didn’t have to learn anything if I wasn’t available, busy, or decided to strike out on my own.

Slack

Slack is the institutional memory and memorandum binder for ILLUMINATION (and other publications on Medium). It’s a good place for coordination and discussion of SOPs and policy and just socializing.

Four: Have Fun

Have fun whatever you are doing, otherwise it will be a chore. If you need a break, take a break. When I was working hard-core debt collections, I only worked 35 hours per week per my contract requirements. I didn’t have to put in huge numbers of hours because I could obtain my goals by efficiency. Having a half-day off was nice because it let me recharge and be fresh. We had Wednesday afternoons off. In the summer, it was perfect to take the kids to museums, or just relax and unwind. It was a beautiful perk of the place I worked.

Later on, the place where I originally worked merged with another place. They stopped that perk. A couple of years later, the place fell apart for a variety of reasons, but the moral took a big hit when the half-days on Wednesday were stopped by management.

I n many ways, we needed the half-day. I would routinely wake up early to travel and not get back until later in the day. A two-hour drive, 50 cases, rush hour traffic coming back was tiring. If I had been required to come into the office after a busy day, I wouldn’t have accomplished much anyway. It probably worked out better to have everyone alert, rested and always happy.

I’ve worked places where people pretended to work because their presence was required. I was lucky in my job, there were metrics that could show I was doing great work without a big show of “breaking rocks” and hanging around just to be seen.

Conclusion

These are just a few ideas. Don’t get overwhelmed on Medium. The stories will still be here for you to read. I admit I have OCD tendencies, so I check in all the time from my phone to see what people have written. I know I’m going to miss things — it’s just the nature of the abundance of great content. I also will try to stop by and read your work sooner or later because I find I love everything and everyone here.

Chris Hedges 🦄 BA, JD, is practicing time management these days with his’ son’s e-learning, editing (which I love), writing, and building Illumination Spotlight for greater SEO of your articles. I also edit Red Curtain Erotica and The Bad Influence, as well as play collaborative writing games at The Never End Tavern.